Berger Business Community Mourns, Demands Presence, Compensation from Fashola

Berger Business Community in Apapa is still mourning, yet to recover from the shock of the fire incident of Tuesday that consumed over 15 Nigerians, even as the community has demanded that the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola must visit the scene to ascertain the level of devastation to the area.

Patron of the community and immediate past Chairman of the Berger Business Community, Dr. Charles Obi who made the appeal, called on the governor to also work out modalities to pay appropriate compensation to those affected in the inferno that has paralysed business in the area.

Speaking to our correspondent, the patron said he and his colleagues have operated in the area in the past 40 years without any incident adding that they are not happy to discover that all they have worked for all these years has suddenly gone down with the flame.

He said the union is still assessing the situation, trying to verify the actually number of people affected and to quantify what was lost to the inferno.

As at the time of our visit, the tanker laden with premium motor spirit(PMS) that exploded was still lying on one part of the road, same with the truck parked in front of the shops hitherto earmarked for sale. We gathered that the owner of the affected truck had been offered up to N5 million but refused to sell it insisting that it is worth much more.

Although we could not speak with the owner, we gathered that he is now full of regrets. Meanwhile, Sterling bank, which was completely burnt by the inferno has placed a notice on the gate informing members of the public about temporary relocation of the branch to Ibru Jetty at West Minster Bus Stop.

But officials of the bank who were reluctant to disclose their identify however told our reporter that plans are now in place to start temporary operation in the car park just opposite the bank.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has insisted that only 15 bodies were consumed in the Tuesday inferno. NEMA Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye told our correspondent that officials of the agency were drafted to scene as soon as they were alerted about the incident adding that they remained on the scene from 11:15PM till 2AM Wednesday morning .

He said 9 bodies were initially recovered while the remaining six were recovered during the mop up exercise in the early hours of Wednesday.